In preparation for its proposal, [Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing] staff met with many stakeholders in the Arlington Mill community to hear concerns and ideas. From these meetings, it reduced the number of units to address concerns of the Park Glen community that the complex was too large for the space, adjacent to the Park Glen condos; and some of the concerns about the density of the project with resulting traffic and crowd-control issues.

Responds to community issues and County goals: The building height was lowered and the unit count was reduced from 192 (256 bedrooms) units to 122 (245 bedrooms) units.

Note that this building is only about four stories. Not exactly turning Columbia Pike into lower Manhattan.

Artificially limiting the amount of housing a developer can build comes with real-life consequences. By limiting height, restricting the number of units, or in the case of suburbs, mandating each unit be built on a certain lot size, you’re telling a certain number of people they’re not allowed to live there and will have to look elsewhere for housing. And when at least 3,600 people are in such urgent need of affordable housing, every unit counts. As Slate’s Matt Yglesias has detailed, limits on building size in urban cores have devastating effects. Fortunately, the tide is slowly turning in favor of allowing taller buildings and denser developments in urban centers – for example, Boston Mayor Tom Menino’s newly-unveiled affordable housing plan.

What Arlington County is de facto doing by its zoning is to restrict the amount of affordable housing in the entire county, which of course makes existing housing stock more expensive, which in turn pleases homeowners (except that they don’t like the higher taxes that go with higher assessed values – can’t win ’em all I guess). In addition, Arlington’s policy of limiting density results in more sprawl, because the fact is people moving into this area have to live somewhere – and if they can’t live places like Arlington, they will probably move “further out,” in other words SPRAWL. It’s environmentally damaging, also harmful to anyone who isn’t well to do, but NIMBY seems to win most/all the time. Sigh…